Viajes

One of the best things of travels is that you discover and learn new things. Wikier has already posted about how the cars are parked in Poznan (Poland). When we were there, we also discovered that (at least in some cases) public toilets are not identified by the usual symbols (an iconified picture of a man or a woman). Sometimes, there is only a triangle or a circle, without words. Sorry, but I don't have any photo to illustrate this story: I'm not brave enough to stand in front of the women's toilet to shoot a photo, specially in a foreign country!

Of course, these new symbols are a challenge for foreign people, like Wikier and me. Can you imagine which one (triangle/circle) suits your gender? Would you have made a decision and entered one of them, and maybe faced the shame of choosing the wrong door? Try to use your logic to determine which symbol represents male and which one represents female, and only then, check your answer! By the way, are you aware of any other country that uses these symbols?

1. ... when you enter a pizza-bar in your hometown in Spain and almost ask for a pizza in English.
2. ... when you sit down on your seat in the movie theater and wonder where the seat-belt is.

I've just arrived home from Poznan (Poland). I went there to present a paper about SWAML with its main developer, Sergio. This was my first talk in an international conference, and even if it wasn't really bad as a start point, I want to fix some details for the next time.

Fortunately, in this trip we managed to spend a few hours visiting the city, which I found interesting. There are some pretty corners, but also dull and poor streets. I'm tired now, and I don't feel like blogging with more details. Perhaps Sergio will post some details about the amazing local habits on driving and parking.

That's correct. This week I've been at Berlin, from Monday until Thursday. I didn't come for pleasure, but business. So, as it happened with some of my previous trips, I barely had time for sight-seeing. Fortunately, my hotel was in the centre of the city, near the Tiergarten, so many of the city points of interest were located nearby. On Wednesday evening, I visited the Bundestag, the Brandeburg Gate and some remaining fragments of the Wall. Surprisingly, it was the only oportunity I had to eat in a German restaurant.

Coincidentally, while I was in Germany, I was notified that a paper I co-authored about SWAML was accepted in a workshop to be held in Poznan (Poland), not far from Berlin. Therefore, it is possible that I'll return to central Europe by next month. By the way, greetings to the co-authors, specially to Wikier.!

I'm writing from the Boston Airport, where I'm waiting for my flight back to Europe. However, it is unlike that I'd be able to send this post before I reach home [Update: I've just arrived at home].

My last day at Boston was great. The weather was a bit better (no more snow, less windy, temperatures below zero but tolerable). I spend all the day at the SWD WG meeting. The most amazing event took place in the afternoon, when I had the priviledge to share a brainstorming session on RDFa with Ivan Herman, Ben Adida, Fabien Gradon, Ralph Swick and Tim Berners-Lee (yeah, we were only 6 in that session). Those five are all great researchers, but let me say that watching TimBL in action is simply awesome. He speaks extremely fast while he draws unreadable diagrams on the whiteboard. Even in his position, he is still pasionate with the technical details of future of the web. Discussing and designing the next technologies of the web, at the heart of the MIT, and with those experts, is something I won't easily forget. Obviously, I'm more than willing to collaborate with them to the maximum extent of my possibilities.

I'm confident that languages such as RDFa and GRDDL may speed up the adoption of the Semantic Web. They allow to extend HTML data with semantics, as microformats do, but they are consistent with the other semantic web technologies. Please refer to the use cases that have been identified for them.

By the way, I was able to see a bit more of the MIT. They have, for instance, lava lamps in some rooms, and wide whiteboards with sofas in front of them, so the staff can discuss ideas while they're confortably sit on the sofas. The environment and the building are also very inspiring, and the wifi connection allows people to do whatever stuff they're doing from the corridors or the cafeteria. The food, however, is not so good. It is also remarkable that the MIT is funded, at least partially, by private funds. The most important donors are recognized by naming some parts of the building after them. For example, the cafeteria is the "Forbes family cafe", and one of the two towers of the Stata Center is the "Gates tower" (yes, that Gates with a great fortune).

Update (7/2/07): I fixed a typo in the name of one of my colleagues. Sorry!

(Apologies for yesterday's duplicate post) This is the end of my 2nd day at Boston, and probably, my last post from America before the journey back home. I spent the day at the SWD WG f2f meeting (f2f means "face to face") at the Stata Center of the MIT. The Stata is the headquarters of the W3C, the CSAIL and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. This building has a distictive architecture (see some photos from the MIT website), and was designed by the same architect as the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. I didn't have time to explore the building and the campus, but I saw some interesting things, like ping-pong tables in the corridors, a fitness center between the classrooms, a distributed museum of MIT hacks in the halls, some robots in the laboratories, etc.

The meeting itself was also interesting. It was my first f2f W3C meeting, therefore I saw the faces of my colleagues of the WG for the first time. Even if they are not participants of the WG, Ivan Herman and Tim Berners-Lee joined us, to a total of 15 people. As I said before, it is obvious that I'm the less experienced participant, but I try to do my best to be a valuable member of the group (this is an example).

After the meeting, I went to the Boston Celtics Arena to enjoy a NBA match against San Antonio Spurs. It was an unforgettable experience! The match itself was bad, but everything that surrounds the game is just incredible and I even eat a hot dog! By the way, the Celtics lost the match.

I finally arrived at Boston, after a long trip of 36 hours. Unfortunately, my flight from London to Boston was cancelled, and I had to sleep in a hotel next to Heathrow. I actually flew to America the next morning.

The weather at Boston is freezing. We went out to walk for a couple of hours. Josema took me to the downtown (the center of the town), and he showed me the most representative places of the city. Later, we had dinner and I returned to the hotel. I really need to sleep, so that's all for today.

By the way, I'm posting this from the MIT. No free Internet connection is available at the hotel.

It was my intention to keep it a surprise, but rumour has spread and it's time to make the announcement. I have plans to attend to the first face-to-face meeting of my W3C working group, which will be held in Boston (MA, USA) two weeks from now. This is going to be my first visit to the States, and my longest trip yet. The meeting will take place at the renowned MIT, hence my 28/Dec joke. Don't worry, I'll be back soon (or maybe not?).

Ya estoy de vuelta de Vilanova, donde asistí, con unos amigos, a la GUADEC 2006. En cuanto a las conferencias, muy bien organizadas, creo que el futuro de GNOME está garantizado, dada la gran cantidad de desarrolladores muy motivados y empresas que aportan recursos. Quien estuvo en su salsa fue, especialmente, Iván, que sigue avanzando en su 'hackerismo' y hasta consigue premios. Hubo charlas mejores y charlas un poco más aburridas, pero el programa en general me resultó interesante.

Por otro lado, el viaje también me dio la oportunidad de pasar unos días muy divertidos con los amigos, conocer lugares nuevos (como Barcelona, donde nunca había estado), charlar con gente de distintas nacionalidades (tengo que mejorar mi inglés...), etc. Al final hay que volver, porque hoy es mi último día de vacaciones y mañana hay que madrugar para ir al trabajo (¿me parece estar oyendo unos graznidos? ;-).

Estoy de vacaciones. De hecho, ya llevo una semana, que me he pasado en la montaña, un sitio donde soy capaz de cambiar completamente el chip y distraerme cortando leña para hacer una barbacoa. Aunque suene a tópico, cuando estoy allí me da la impresión de que el tiempo transcurre más despacio y los días duran bastante más (bueno, en estas fechas, los días efectivamente duran más). Pero cuando llega la noche y termina de oscurecer (no antes de las 23:30 o medianoche), tengo la oportunidad de contemplar un espectáculo formidable. Ahora sí que va a sonar a tópico sentimental, pero contemplar el cielo estrellado me estremece. No me refiero a las docenas de estrellas que, en una poco probable noche despejada en el centro de Asturias, se pueden contemplar bajo las condiciones de contaminación lumínica que nos asfixian en esta región. Me refiero a las incontables estrellas que se pueden observar desde la montaña, con un aire completamente limpio, y a muchos kilómetros de los núcleos de población. Cuando tengo la oportunidad de disfrutar de este espectáculo, me siento un tanto extraño. Sé que esas mismas estrellas deberían poder verse desde mi residencia habitual, pero en la práctica, nunca se ven. Por eso trato de disfrutar al máximo de las oportunidades que tengo de disfrutar algo así.

Por cierto, que me queda otra semana de vacaciones, y pienso seguir disfrutándola viajando a Cataluña con los amigos.